Phosphor material



Aug. 17, w48.

F. E. WILLIAM S PHOSPHOR MATERIAL Filed Oct. 24, 1945 N h 2000 @P00 62100 aa ion da@ 6 67M @500 WAI/ELE 67 19 [NVEN TOR. FcrdEZIl'al/a B Y @/LJWZm/f Arran/5y Patented Aug. 17, 1948 PHOSPHOR MATERIAL Ferd E. Williams, Princeton, N. J., assigner to Radio Corporation of America, a corporation of Delaware Application October 24, 1945, Serial No. 624,255

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to phosphor materials for instrument lpanels of airplanes and many other uses.

In my application, led October 17, 1945, Serial No. 622,824, I have dis-closed a phosphor adapted to emit red light with increased eniciency under ultra-violet and blue light excitation. The compound disclosed therein is manganese-activated magnesium germanate in which the magnesium oxide is present in greater than ortho proportions, which latter connotes two moles of magnesium oxide to one mole of germanium oxide. The magnesium oxide can be var-led from two to twenty times that of the magnesium orthogermana'te with a maximum increase in eciency of 600% at the proportions 4Mg-O-Ge0z:lh/ln.4 In that application it is disclosed that zinc oxide can be substituted in whole or in part for the magnesium oxide, but this is not claimed therein and is the subject of this invention.

It is an object of this invention to improve the visual eiliciency of magnesium german-ate phosphors by substituting up to 40 mole per cent of zinc oxide for the magnesium oxide of my said application.

Another object is to shift the spectral distribution so as to increase the peak of light intensity nearest the more visible regions of the spectrum, which is around 5600 Other objects will appear in the following speci- -ca'tion, reference being had to the drawing, in which:

Fig. l is a graph of relative intensi-ty vs. Wave length for the phosphor of my said application, 4l\/l'.gO:GeOz:.0ll\./ln.

Fig. 2 is a graph of relative intensity vs. Wave length for my improved phosphor having the composition 3.7Mg: .3ZnO:1GeOz:.01Mn.

Fig. 3 is a similar graph for a phosphor composition 3.5MgO: .5ZnO :GeO: .01Mn,

Fig. 4 is a similar graph for a modied form of phosphor having the composition It is known that the human eye is most sen-sitive to light in the neighborhood of 5600 wave length and any shift of intensity of the luminescence toward that wave length in the magnesium germanate phosphors is a useful improvement.

In my experiments to bring about a shift in the desired direction, I have found that substituting zinc oxide is admirably suited for the purpose. The zinc oxide may be substituted up to about 25% for the phosphor having the composition 4MgO.GeO2:.01Mn of my said application. For example, a 25 mole per cent substitution would produce a phosphor having the composition Proportions even up to 40 mole per cent substitution of zinc oxide may be made, but the lumines-cen-ce becomes predominantly yellow.

In Fig. 1 of the drawing, the curve l has two peaks of about equal value, one being around 0330 and the other 6510 the character denoting angstroms. Substitution of 7% mole per cent of `zinc oxide for the magnesium oxide gives a phosphor having the composition The relative luminescence in the Wave length scale of a phosphor of this compositi-on is shown at 2 in Fig. 2. It will be seen that the lumines- -cence in theregion where the eye is most sensi-tive has increased in intensity. The peak at 6330 now predominates. When the proportion of the zinc oxide substituted for magnesium oxide is increased to 121/2 mole per cent to form a phosphor having the composition 3.5Mg0 .52110 GeOz: .01Mn

the luminescence further changes, as indicated in curve 3 of Fig. 3. This is the preferred proportion. The emission of this phosphor is red exclusively and the emission peak nearest the optimum of visibility is Ithe most intense.

By using only 3 moles of the oxides of the ca- -tions lto 1 mole of the basic `oxide and making the former mole per cent magnesium oxide and 10 mole per cent zinc oxide, a phosphor having `the formula 2.7Mg0:.SZn-OrGeOzLOlMn is obtained with a luminescence characteristic as shown at 4 -in Fig. 4 of the draw-ing.

While I have indicated the manganese activator content as .01 mole in the phosphors, this is by way of example only. This may be varied over a considerable range.

Having described my invention, what I claim 1s:

VMgO-XZnO-yGeOzzZMn the ratio'o Wto-3XL being from vto up to and 4 including 37 to 3, the sum .of V and X being four times Y, and Z being substantially 0.01.

FERD E. WILLIAMS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the ie of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 10 Number Name Date 2,066,044- Leverenz Dec. 29, 1936 2,306,270 Leverenz'i Dec. 22, 1942 

